Hey, Alexa: Here’s How I Really Feel

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Amazon’s voice-activated smart speakers can presently do a pretty good job of answering requests for the local weather, or to play your favorite radio station’s audio stream.


According to Bloomberg, Alexa will soon be able to recognize your emotions by way of a voice-activated wearable.

Internal documents viewed by the business news provider indicate that a Fitbit-like wrist instrument, designed to give health and wellness data, is being designed.

The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It is being made through a partnership between Lab126, a partner for Amazon’s Fire phone and Echo smart speaker, and the Alexa voice software team.

Like the Apple watch, the wrist device is powered by a smartphone app and has microphones synched with software that can determine the emotional state of the person wearing it from the tone of their voice.

This technology could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others, Bloomberg says, citing the Amazon documents.

The project is code-named “Dylan,” with beta testing reporting in progress.

Companies such as Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and IBM Corp., among a host of other firms, are developing technologies designed to derive emotional states from images, audio data and other inputs, Bloomberg notes.

Amazon has said it wants a more lifelike voice assistant.